News From National

CFUW NATIONAL VIRTUAL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2023

The CFUW AGM kicked off on the evening of Friday, July 7th with Opening Ceremonies and a Social Event.  Along with the presentation on the new Branding for CFUW we were provided with a presentation by CFUW member Brenda Shanahan, MP, member of Parliament for Chateauguay-Lacolle (Quebec). 

The Saturday proceedings started an interesting presentation by Keynote Speaker, Carla Kopell titled Democracy, Empowerment and Gender Equality: Exploring Connections.  Following this presentation we moved to the actual CFUW Business.  There was only limited business this year consisting of one bylaw amendment and the financial reports. Following the approval of the agenda and the standing rules, the one bylaw amendment came to the floor.  This amendment, which passed, was a name change replacing the term Acting President with Deputy President which more accurately reflects this officer’s duties.

CFUW finances were the next order of business.  VP Finances, Susan Lane presented her report followed by three motions: acceptance of the 2022/23 auditors report; appointment of the auditors for 2023/24 and approval of the proposed 2023-2024 draft operating budget.  All these motions were approved.  The 2023-2024 draft operating budget is a balanced budget including the expenses of an in-person AGM in 2024. 

Following the Business Meeting, identification of CFUW Club award winners was announced.  This included awards for Special Projects, International Woman’s Day Awards, International Relations Awards and Membership Awards.  Needless to say, it was a welcome surprise to see CFUW Halifax identified as a winner of the 2023 New Members Awards.  Effectively this award was for a 13% increase in new members but not a 10% membership increase.

 Sunday was the Policy Session where our resolution was to be voted on.  All six resolutions were presented to the virtually assembled group.  Limited discussion occurred on most of the resolutions including our Immigration Detention in Canada resolution which was well presented by Issues Chair, Elaine Gunn.  Five resolutions were approved as adopted by the membership.  The CFUW Guelph resolution on tick borne diseases did not achieve the 2/3 vote required to pass.

 So all in all an uneventful AGM but for CFUW Halifax the winning of a membership award and the passing of our resolution definitely count as highlights – well done to all involved!

CFUW GETS A NEW LOOK

On July 7th 2023 CFUW hosted the AGM Opening Ceremonies and Social Event which featured a presentation by KIK on CFUW’s new look.

 A great brand is created by what you promise and what you deliver.  The logo and tagline creative criteria were described as needing to be distinct, memorable and flexible.  It needs to be applicable at all levels of the organization reflecting its’ past/present and future and be inclusive and diverse.

The above banner shows the new logo.  The different parts represent “an opening book – a foundation in learning and education – opening and expanding”, “unfolding pages – a long history with many achievements – diversity of members – a mosaic / lotus flower” and a “flame – lamp of learning – legacy brand – lighting the way upward and forward”.

Rationale for the tagline “Realizing potential.  For all women” was an interesting aspect of the new CFUW branding.  The word “Realizing” was identified as meaning “to both understand and make real” – a process which speaks to the foundations of lifelong learning in CFUW.  “Potential” is the outcome of the work – vision into reality.  The “For all women.” defines both the organization’s members and purpose.

KIK is continuing the work to produce letterheads, print ready business cards, powerpoint templates and Zoom meeting backgrounds in preparation for the roll-out by the National Office in mid-fall.  Training on the how and when to use the new logo and tagline has already been announced by National with two dates of September 13 and 19.  The training will include guidelines on decommissioning old logos.

The implementation of the new logo and tagline is seen as a step forward for CFUW.  Once it is formally launched we can look forward to seeing the change on our website, newsletters, reports, and all other CFUW correspondence.  We may even look into obtaining a new Club banner!

CFUW Renaming and Visual Identity Initiatives

This initiative by the 2020-22 Board started as a visual recognition project.  Following some initial surveys and discussion with KIK Partners, the company selected to develop the new CFUW visual identity, it was established that a new name was needed before developing a new visual identity.  The surveys had established that there was considerable interest  in anew name.  In particular, a problem with the "U" was identified  as well as the fact that our name doesn't say what we do.  Following a couple of renaming exercises conducted by KIK, naming options were were narrowed down to "Canadian Federation of Women (CFW), Canadian Federation for the Advancement of Women (CFAW) or no change.

In June two town-halls were held by Zoom for the purposes of "taking the temperature of the membership regarding the potential of a name change" and "to engage membership in dialogue about potential names".  The three naming options were discussed in Breakout Rooms with the direction to return prepared to select from the three options.  Everyone present got to put forward a anonymous individual vote.   The Vote was to remain the same (CFUW), make a simple change (CFW) or to move forward (CFAW).  The move forward option was adopted by both town-halls with 82% and 58% of the votes.  Stand by for further updates on the name change as the new CFUW Board works through the requirements regarding a name change and a new visual identity.

2022 National Annual General Meeting and Policy Session

The theme of this virtual meeting was "Reconciliation, Revitalization and Renewal".  The proceedings began on the evening of August 26th with the presentation of awards.  The event was a virtual reception with musical performances by Barbara Lewis, a CFUW member, and the CFUW Ottawa Madrigals, a choir interest group.   Awards were given for membership increases, special projects, and in the area of International Relations.  The Library and Creative Arts Award was also presented.  A Certificate of Merit was presented by the International Relations Committee to CFUW St. John's for its program of Virtual International Experiences.  Recognition for another Maritime club was given to CFUW Fredericton as the runner-up for the Library Award, for its contribution to the Seminar Room at Hanwell Community School.

The AGM convened the next and covered:

• Amendments to the Articles and Bylaws - These were adopted as circulated with one exception' the proposal to remove the approval of the annual budget by the membership at the Annual general Meeting did not pass.

• Financial Documents - Members approved the financial statements for last year and the operating budget for the upcoming year.

• Election of the Board of Directors for the 2022-2024Biennium

Attendees also enjoyed a presentation by Eileen Olexiuk.  Now retired, she was a groundbreaking Canadian female diplomat who was assigned to Afghanistan when the Canadian Embassy was established there in 2003.

One of the saddest parts of the meeting came at the end when we had to say goodbye to our Executive Director of the last 10 years, Robin Jackson.  She will be leaving us later this fall.  The new Board of Directors will be conducting a search for her replacement.

The Policy Session was held on Sunday, August 28th.  There were two items on the agenda.

• Adoption of the 2022 Resolutions - All six Resolutions presented were adopted.

• Granting of Honorary Membership to Dr. Anne Innis Dagg - Dr. Dagg is a groundbreaking zoologist who is an authority on giraffes.  She was nominated by CFUW Hamilton.  members voted to grant honorary membership to Dr. Dagg. 

2021 National Annual General Meeting and Policy Session

The CFUW AGM was held virtually on Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26.  Margaret Therrien, Janet Willwerth and Lorraine Baxter attended the meetings.  Lorraine cast the votes for CFUW Halifax.  The meetings were chaired by Kathryn Wilkinson, National President.  The 4 resolutions we reviewed as a club were approved.  (See Issues and Advocacy page on this website)  These are all very important resolutions, but we especially salute the Cape Breton Club who, with so few members, presented a very important resolution.  They are an inspiration to all!

Two bylaws were also approved as amended: the CFUW Aurora-Newmarket and CFUW Markham-Unionville motion and the CFUW Moncton proposal.  These bylaws govern the fees paid by member clubs who choose to opt-in or opt-out of GWI.  What most concerns our club is that the dues set for clubs who choose to opt out of GWI will now be set at $55.00 with no Swiss franc calculations included.

CFUW Clubs and GWI

At the Board meeting on Tuesday, December 1, a motion was passed to allow Clubs to opt out of the GWI per capita dues calculation beginning with the 2022 GWI dues.  This means the CFUW's dues obligation to GWI will be based on the number of members in clubs that did not opt out.  All clubs will continue to pay CFUW per capita dues of #76.00 unless the dues are changed at an AGM.

CFUW Halifax will discuss this motion over the February and March meetings.  We will vote on this motion by the end of March so we can register our decision with National by March 31st.

2020 National AGM 

The CFUW AGM was held virtually on June 19th and 20th.  Seven hours of presentations, discussions and votes was attended by Lorraine Baxter, Janet Willwerth and Margaret Therrien.  The AGM was chaired by Grace Hollett, National President and Kathryn Wilkinson VP Advocacy.  It was an ambitious agenda but the two days of virtual meetings managed to cover all ten of the proposed amendments to the Articles and Bylaws.  In this group of ten amendments was that the CFUW method of voting based on number of Club members was retained and the Guelph motion requesting a change to Article 4 by removing the requirement for CFUW to be a member of GWI was defeated.  On Friday, the Nomination Committee presented the slate of candidates for the next CFUW biennium and clubs voted on the contested positions.  The election results were revealed on Saturday and Kathryn Wilkinson is the new National President.  The other order of business that was covered at the AGM was the financial report and the Clubs voted to accept the audited financial statement, the auditors for 2020-2021 and the proposed operating budget for 2020-2021 with its small projected deficit.  As AGM meeting time had expired, a motion was put before the meeting requesting support for the holding of a Special General Meeting on August 8th in order to complete AGM business – this motion passed. 

CFUW Special General Meeting

On August 8th, 2020 a virtual Special General Meeting was convened to complete CFUW business  which was not completed at the June AGM.  The first order of business was the Nepean motion proposing a $5.00 per capita increase in CFUW dues.  This motion was defeated.  Next on the agenda was the Ottawa motion on the Need for a Balanced Budget.  Substantial discussion ensured regarding this motion but when put to a vote the motion was defeated. A budget is just a budget!  The Resolutions Chair then took over chairing the meeting while two Emergency Resolutions – both on Long-Term Care and six regular resolutions were all discussed and voted on.  All resolutions were accepted by the membership.  For more information on these resolutions see the Issues and Advocacy page of this website.  The meeting was extended for an hour in order to allow several reports to be presented.  These included a report on the Mediation Working Group, a report by Past President, Grace Hollett and a report by the Executive Director who titled her report “It was the Best of Times and the Worst of Times” referring to the challenges that COVID-19 had presented.  An invitation was extended for next June’s AGM to be held virtually on June 25, 2021.